I vant to suck your blood! Oh wait…

I seem to inherit all the bad genes that my family tree has to offer. Infertility, tendency to gain weight easily, acne prone skin, and haemochromatosis.

“What is that?” you may ask, well I will tell you.

It is a genetic disorder where your blood stores too much iron. If left undiagnosed and untreated it can lead to liver disease, liver cancer, heart problems and death. Pretty awesome huh?

It is caused by a mutated gene. Usually in order to inherit the disease you have to receive one mutated gene from each parent. Those with only one gene rarely develop it.

Guess who has 2 thumbs, one gene, and haemochromatosis? THIS GIRL!

I was  around 10 when my dad was diagnosed. Turns out both my grandpa and grandma carry the mutated gene and passed it on to 3 of their 4 children. My dad passed on the gene to me. My mom was tested and does not carry the gene. The chance one of my dad’s children developing it was less than 25%. The chances that a female child would develop it was even less because females menstruate every month which decreases the iron level.

I’m just KILLING the odds.

Anyways I was diagnosed in late 2010, just a few months before we started trying. Treatment is super easy, basically just phlebotomies as needed to thin out the blood. The body doesn’t PRODUCE too much iron, it just stores it. So by letting some blood you clean out the iron and your body makes new healthy blood to replace it. A normal adult has a blood iron level between 12-50. When I was diagnosed my level was around 65. When my dad was diagnosed his were over 200. He had to do phlebotomies every week for almost a year. Still now he has to do it every 6 months to keep it under control. I have had to do one phlebotomy, back when I was first diagnosed. Since then I just do yearly check ups to make sure I’m still good. I had one today. I wasn’t worried about this one based on the surgery and all. Plus I actually have been having cycles so that always helps. My number came back at 18 so I was pretty happy about that. Another year till I have to go back.

For years I’ve had this theory (don’t you love my theories?) that there is a link between haemochromatosis and infertility. Not that I am ignorant enough to blame my lack of baby on that, because I obviously have other issues with PCOS and not ovulating and all, but I still think there is a connection. When my family was diagnosed we had 3 couples struggling to conceive, including my parents. My aunt and uncle had been trying for years and years. They even adopted. The thing is though, once they were all diagnosed and treated…they all got pregnant. Within a year the fertility problems went away and they all had babies.

Coincidence? I think not.

My hemotologist insists there is no correlation between the two, but I call bull. There HAS to be something there. But then again, my blood levels are in the normal range and I’m still having trouble. But I blame that on the ever-present cysts that like to gobble up my ovary(ies) whole.

I am 7, possibly 6, dpo today. I’ve actually maintained a relatively calm attitude during this TWW. Probably because I have no symptoms to spot. None, nada, zilch. I have things that I like to TRY to pretend could possibly be symptoms but I know I am just kidding myself. So basically I am just waiting for AF to show up. It should be due in about 8 days. I am a little too obsessed with my CM however. Just because I am still worried that I have low progesterone, so even if I do get pregnant, I am worried that I will lose it due to low progesterone. So I have been checking my CM to make sure that it seems like progesterone is still in my system. So far so good.  I guess I just need to be happy that my body might kind of be getting into a routine. That is a good thing! Still no expectations this month. I will not test unless I am late. I will not cry when my period starts. Instead I am going to be happy that my body is starting to understand what I need from it. I need eggs! Gimme your eggs!